Photo of the Month

March, 2001

LIME RIDGE BAND

Decades ago before our present forms of entertainment that dominate our
culture; communities provided their own home grown entertainment.  Small town
bands were common throughout the country.  At the start of the 1900s, it was
estimated that there were at least 15,000.  The band members were amateur
musicians recruited from the ranks of the townsmen like clerks, bankers,
merchants, barbers, teachers, harness makers, and young boys.  On special
occasions such as picnics, rallies, and parades, the band would perform.  One
can envision a nostalgic scene on a warm summer evening with a crowd of all
ages gathered around a gazebo bandstand in a park, maybe at the town square,
or on the lawn of the courthouse to hear a concert.  The Lime Ridge Band with
twenty-nine members of varying ages and assortment of instruments as seen in
this picture was one of those hometown bands.  This small community,
established in the mid-1840s and originally known as Centreville, was halfway
between Bloomsburg and Berwick.  It consisted of a few hundred people at the
start of the 1900s, and the name Lime Ridge came from the lime deposits that
were in the area.